Return to the Tidal Zone
by kendramccormick
Summary: If you liked The Tidal Zone, then I hope that you like this new series, which Tom Surfing gave me permission to write, full of stories just as creepy, just as funny, and just as wet as the original ones. They will be based on Twilight Zone episodes and the works of Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, and others. Feel free to leave suggestions for future stories in reviews.


**RETURN TO THE TIDAL ZONE**

**By Kendramccormick**

**Disclaimer: **_**SpongeBob SquarePants**_** belongs to Stephen Hillenburg, **_**The Twilight Zone**_** belongs to . . . Well, it belonged to Rod Serling, not sure who owns it now, but it's certainly not me either. And Tom Surfing gave me permission to write new Tidal Zone stories. Nothing belongs to me. **

**OPENING:**

**Tom Surfing: There is a slippery sector, beyond that which is teeming with sea men . . .**

**It is a watery world as spacious as outer space, and as eternal as temporal eternity . . .**

**It is the sea lane between low and high tides, between scientific oceanographers and superstitious sailors, and its waves crash between the depths of the darkest waters and the floating of the brightest jellyfish . . .**

**This is the wet closet of all sea monsters. It is the wild pool game known only as . . . The Tidal Zone!**

**S1, E1: "LAND AND SEA" (Based on the Twilight Zone episode "Two")**

**Tom Surfing: The time is unimportant. Whether this is the distant past or the far future is irrelevant. What is important is that for many years, the once peaceful underwater city of Bikini Bottom has been ravaged by a bloody war between sea creatures and land creatures for control of the ocean. Now only two soldiers remain, from different sides of the war: a sponge and a squirrel. Will they be able to find peace at last, or is hatred simply too strong, for the last soldiers fighting the Battle of . . . The Tidal Zone.**

The streets of Bikini Bottom are deserted, save for a lone squirrel. Sandra "Sandy" Cheeks, the last soldier for the Land Critter Coalition, has not seen any signs of life from either side for many days. She sees a light purple dress in the broken window of the Barg-n-Mart, taking in its beauty as she remembers a simpler life in Texas. She then snaps out of the brief trance and enters the deserted Krusty Krab restaurant in search of food.

Sandy notices movement from the corner of her eye. A square yellow sponge walks into the kitchen. His name is SpongeBob SquarePants, and he is also looking for supplies. As SpongeBob then heads for the freezer, Sandy sees that he is wearing the official military uniform of the Sea Creature Alliance, the sworn enemies of the Land Critter Coalition. The sight of the uniform causes several memories of fighting the accursed sea creatures to come to her. She tackles him in a fit of rage.

SpongeBob knows she is the enemy, and that he must defend himself from this wild squirrel girl, yet he is reluctant to hurt the only other person alive in possibly the whole world. So he uses a powerful karate chop to knock her out, and begins to eat a can of coral that Sandy was holding. Then he sees a lone white scallop flying by, and a calendar with pictures of gorgeous female fish wearing swimsuits, and then he takes another look at his new companion.

SpongeBob shakes Sandy awake and calmly explains that since they are the only ones left, fighting is pointless, and they could be friends. There are no more causes left to fight for, and the only difference between them is the color of their uniforms. He hands her the rest of the coral. She still does not trust him entirely, but she eats the coral anyway.

They walk by an abandoned movie theater called The Reef. SpongeBob sees a poster for a romantic comedy and smiles. But then both of them see piles of corpses from both sides. They each take a gun from a dead soldier and aim it at the other, in a long and awkward Mexican standoff. Finally, SpongeBob lowers his gun and walks away, giving Sandy an awkward look.

They pass the Barg-n-Mart, where Sandy sees the dress again. SpongeBob hears her whisper the word "pretty," and then reaches through the window and hands her the dress. He points to a building and tells her to go change.

Sandy enters the building, and is about to start putting on the dress, when she takes a good look around, and realizes that it is a recruiting office. She takes a long look at all the posters and propaganda covering the walls. Her attention becomes fixed on a poster with a picture of a few terrified land critters being gunned down by hostile sea creatures that is meant to remind the viewer who the enemy is. The sight of the poster reminds Sandy of everything those sea creatures have taken away from her: her old way of life, her home in Texas, her friends and family, even her twin brother Randy.

She storms out of the office, raises her gun, and shoots SpongeBob twice in the face. He is shocked, wondering what he did wrong, and runs away before she can shoot him again.

That night there was a powerful tempest blowing above the water, and as Sandy took shelter in the recruiting office, she began to doubt her actions. She wondered if shooting her former sponge companion just because of the uniform that he wore was a little rash. Yes, he was a sea creature, but he had done nothing to her. He was not one of the sea creatures who attacked her family. He had tried to help her, despite the fact that she came from the land. Perhaps he was right, and they were not so different. He may have lost loved ones just like she did. Most of all, she was lonely, and he was the only other person around. As the storm raged on outside, she shook with fear and guilt under an old quilt, wondering if peace between two different worlds was possible after all.

The next day, SpongeBob had returned to the ruins of the Krusty Krab to search for food. He had changed out of his dirty military uniform into a makeshift tuxedo. His mind was on that aggressive squirrel girl he had encountered the day before. It was a good thing that he was a sponge, and therefore healed fast after being shot. He just could not figure her out. He thought he was getting through to her. He had never really wanted to fight the land critters. He took action after some of his closest friends, like the brave Patrick Star and Squidward Tentacles, had been slain, but as time went on, he asked himself what the point was to all the fighting. He longed for peace, but apparently the squirrel had other plans. SpongeBob could only imagine what made her so cold.

He heard a rustling sound, and spots Sandy's head sticking out from behind a boatmobile. He yells at her to go away, and to take her war somewhere with more suitable companions. She then steps into the open and he sees that she is now wearing the dress that he saw her admiring earlier. Something in her eyes tells him that she has changed. He gives her some of the food he found and says that she looks pretty. A blush spreads across her face.

Sandy extends her hand, and SpongeBob takes it. The two look in each other's eyes, and SpongeBob sees Sandy smile for the first time. Guns slung over their shoulders, they walk away smiling into the underwater sunset.

**Tom Surfing: War is utterly pointless, as many enlightened philosophers are known to say, and as SpongeBob and Sandy have learned. This tale reveals that over time, hatred can become friendship and maybe even more under the right circumstances. This has been a love story . . . In the Tidal Zone. Until next time, and Merry Christmas to all!**


End file.
